Anyone attend? I would have, but as luck would have it, my car broke down less than 20 minutes from the convention center, and I had to pay 180 dollars to have it towed back to my home, not to mention the unrefundable 92 dollars for two general admission tickets.

"The morning glory blooms for an hour. It differs not at heart from the giant pine, which lives for a thousand years."

The premiere edition of Frank Shamrock's new MMA organization, ShootBox, took place on Saturday night at the Orlando County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. MMAWeekly's John Hartnett attended the event live and said that that it looked sold out or close to sold out.

The Orlando County Convention Center can hold anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 people with the way they have it set up, and that's definitely a good day of ticket sales for any new promotion that is running its first show. Jeff Blatnick and Don Frye were at the show recording commentary for the fights, and also in attendance were Bas Rutten, Carlos Newton, Dan Severn, and K-1 fighter Michael McDonald.

The new fighting arena that is exclusive to ShootBox seemed to be a hit. John Hartnett said that the best way to think of it is like a martial arts competitions where it's contested on a really big blue mat, except this one indents upward on its boundaries and has the audience right behind those indents.

There are "safety lines" a few feet away from the actual edges where the audience is, and there were a few times where the fighters accidentally crossed the safety lines and were restarted in the middle.

The view of the action is excellent compared to any other fighting environment like a ring or a cage, with no ropes or anything else to get in the way of your view.

The show had a very professional-looking set-up complete with four big screens showing instant replays of the finishes after each fight. The big screens looked more like movie theather screens than TV screens.

MMAWeekly's John Hartnett sat right next to Frank Shamrock in the front row and talked to him throughout the event. Shamrock said that the next ShootBox show will be in Las Vegas and that he will indeed be fighting Cesar Gracie in the main event of that show. John Hartnett was also able to talk to Carlos Newton, who said that he will be fighting on the first edition of the new Pride Budisho show against D. Mishima.

As for the fights themselves, the event was highlighted by a brutal knockout with some scary aftermath and a still-undetermined prognosis as of press time. American Kickboxing Academy fighter Mike Swick went up against Butch Bacon in the second-to-last fight on the card, and Swick won by knockout in 25 seconds. John Hartnett described it as an absolutely brutal and scary-looking knockout. Swick knocked Bacon down to the ground with a right hook, at which point Bacon was stunned and still sitting upright. A straight right hand by Swick knocked Bacon onto his back and appeared to knock him completely out.

Swick quickly jumped on top of Bacon and landed another right hand, this one to the neck/head area, before the fight was finally stopped. It was not a pretty sight, as Bacon was unconscious for several minutes and appears to still be unconsicous. Attempts to revive Bacon apparently failed, as he was rushed to the backstage area on a stretcher and still appeared to be unconscious as he was being taken backstage.

There was a delay before the main event, as paramedics tended to Butch Bacon in the backstage area. He was ultimately taken out of the building via an ambulance. It's not known whether he was still unconscious when the ambulance left, and it really wouldn't be fair to speculate. All we know for sure is that the last time John Hartnett saw Butch Bacon, he was being stretchered to the back and appeared to still be unconscious. We will let you know as soon as we know anything more about this.

Full Results:
Jason DeLucia (now 33-19-1 in MMA) defeats Matt Rogers (6-2) by submission
Jason DeLucia is best known by most American MMA fans for his appearance in UFC 2, where he was tapped out by Royce Gracie in about one minute. DeLucia went on to make a good career for himself in Pancrase, but this was his first fight since 2001 and his first win since 2000. It looked like an old-school UFC fight with superior grappling, as DeLucia took Rogers down and out-maneuvered him. DeLucia ended up winning by submission with a rear naked choke at 2:50 of the first round.

Jeff Ford (now 2-0 in MMA) defeats Jerome Smith (6-4) by KO
Yes, this is the same Jeff Ford who lost at the K-1 event last week. Ford joins some pretty good company, as the three fighters who previously defeated Jerome Smith were Frank Mir, Jeremy Horn, and Roger Neff. This was a good fight that ended in the first knockout of the evening. The "safety lines" on the boundaries of the fighting area came into play, as the fighters almost fell out of the fighting environment at one point before the fight was restarted in the middle.

Alex Kababian (now 3-0 in MMA) defeats Chad Washburn (5-11) by submission
This was a huge mismatch in favor of an American Kickboxing Academy fighter. Kababian was able to win the fight by submission in the first round with a triangle choke/neck crank.

Stu Hesselmeyer (now 3-2 in MMA) defeats David Baggett (1-1) by verbal submission
After some ridiculous-looking mismatches, this was the first evenly-contested bout on the card. These two fighters went back and forth including some good exchanges in the stand-up, but in round two Hesselmeyer started landing some devastating punches that were just too much for Baggett. Baggett verbally submitted in the stand-up from a combination of punishment and exhaustion.

Dave Velasquez (now 9-6 in MMA) defeats Daniel Wade (1-2) by submission
Velasquez picked up the submission victory with a heel hook/ankle lock in the first round.

Crofton Wallace (now 2-0 in MMA) defeats Alex Keaton (0-3) by TKO
Wallace delivered a pounding from the beginning, and though Keaton was able to buy some time by staying on top for a little while, things went downhill for him when the fight was stood back up. Wallace was landing a lot of good punches and Keaton appeared to be saved by the bell at the end of round one. However, Keaton appeared to be out of it in his corner and was unable to continue, thus giving Crofton Wallace the TKO victory.

Mike Lee (now 14-7 in MMA) defeats Scott Johnson (4-12) by submission
Not a surprising outcome when you look at the mismatch in terms of MMA records. Lee picked up the win with a triangle choke about 1:15 into the fight.

Erik Wray (now 6-0 in MMA) defeats James Meals (2-15) by submission
Frank Shamrock's teammate Erik Wray picked up the victory 37 seconds into the second round by sinking in a guillotine choke.

Chris Kaouk (now 1-1 in MMA) defeated Eric O'Bryon by submission
Kaouk took O'Bryon down and secured the armbar victory just 1:35 into the first round.